1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to desktop computer file systems, and more particularly to systems and methods for presenting effective lists of files in a file system of a desktop, laptop, or hand-held computer.
2. Description of the Related Art
Increasingly, desktop and laptop computers contain not only alpha-numeric documents, e.g., text-only documents made using a word processing application program such as WordPerfect.RTM. or Microsoft Word.RTM., but documents and files that include visual data as well. By "visual data" is meant data that is not exclusively alpha-numeric. Accordingly, "visual data" includes scanned photographic images, computer- or human-generated art images, clip art, video frames, logos, banners, screen shots, Web pages, computer-generated presentation slides and other business graphics that are generated by applications such as Freelance.RTM., Excel.RTM., 1-2-3.RTM., or PowerPoint.RTM., and other genre of images. Such visual data can be contained in documents, by which is meant a data group that can include alpha numeric data that is intended to be edited using an associated application. Examples of such documents are slides made using the Power Point.RTM. graphics application marketed by Microsoft Corp., as well as word processing documents and email documents, which, despite being generally considered to contain only alpha-numeric text data, might nonetheless include embedded images that are stored as image data bits within the documents. Also, visual data can be contained in non-document image files that simply hold, e.g., photographic images. An example of a non-document image file is a gif-formatted file or .jpg-formatted file.
To access desktop files and documents, users of desktop and laptop computers invoke the files/documents by name. Often, a user cannot remember the exact name of a file or document, so the user requests a directory listing, which is a list of file directories in a file system or, on a lower hierarchical level, a list of files/documents in a particular directory. In response to the user's request, a directory list or file list is presented on the user's monitor.
Representative of existing directory list formats is the display that can be invoked using Microsoft's Windows NT Explorer.RTM., which presents a list by name of directories on a left window of the screen, and a list by name of files/documents in a user-selected one of the directories, on a right window of the screen. The list of files/documents includes the names, along with information such as file/document type, size, and date of last edit. The user then scrolls through the list, which can include thousands of files/documents, until the user recognizes a name of a file/document the user desires to open.
As recognized herein, the above-described conventional directory list format has certain drawbacks. Specifically, it is frequently the case that a user might desire to recall a particular document that has been stored in the user's file system, but the user might not know the exact name of the file or document. The present invention recognizes, however, that if the document contains visual data, for example, is a Power Point.RTM. presentation or a text document with embedded images, the user might quickly recognize the document if the user could view a visual summary of the document, which unfortunately the user currently cannot conveniently do.
Consequently, to see easily recognizable visual data in files and documents, the user, as understood herein, would have to scroll through perhaps thousands of names on the list and sequentially open the files/documents until the visual datum being sought is found. This is time consuming and cumbersome. Nonetheless, it is the only means available for a user who, for example, desires to avoid creating a new presentation slide from scratch by instead creating a slide using a previously-generated slide that the user knows to be in the file system, but that might be stored under a name that the user cannot precisely recall. So-called thumbnail image browsers cannot remedy the above prior art shortfall, because thumbnail image browsers simply present a table of thumbnail images of images in non-document files formatted as, e.g., gif or jpg files. As stated above, such files make up only a fraction of the files and documents typically stored in a desktop file system. Additionally, thumbnail image browsers are not intended to and in fact do not provide the functionality of a directory listing GUI.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,060,135 discloses a data processing system that presents detailed miniaturized images of documents that are stackable on each other, for identification of documents by a user. The '135 system, however, is seemingly directed only to alpha-numeric (word processing) documents, and consequently does not address providing a GUI for a desktop system including image documents. Thus, among other things, the '135 system does not provide a means for easily searching for images that are similar to a desired image in a document. Moreover, the '135 patent does not provide an image-based GUI that is hierarchical in nature. As understood by the present invention, presenting an image content-based GUI that facilitates image searching and that is hierarchically based for ease of use is desirable. Likewise, U.S. Pat. No. 5,731,813 presents "snapshots" of screen displays in a seemingly non-hierarchical format, without the capability of image searching.
Fortunately, the present invention recognizes that visual data in file system documents can be used to present an effective, visual content-based directory list that a user can quickly scan to recall a particular visual datum, even if the user does not remember the associated name. Moreover, the present invention recognizes that it is possible to provide a directory list in which a user can identify a visual datum in a file system that contains visual data that is "close" to desired visual data and to cause similar visual data in the file system to be quickly and efficiently presented. The present invention also recognizes that it is possible to provide a natural multi-level hierarchy in presenting visual summaries of documents with visual data, from a single visual summary per document, to multiple visual summaries for each image of visual data instance in a document. Still further, the present invention recognizes that it is possible to provide a visual data-oriented directory list that can be combined with conventional file system features.